Ivan Chernyakhovsky

Ivan Chernyakhovsky (29 June 1906-18 February 1945) was a General of the Army of the Soviet Union, the youngest in the Red Army's history. He was also the youngest front commander, leading the 3rd Belorussian Front until he was killed at the Battle of Konigsberg in 1945.

Biography
Ivan Chernyakhovsky was born on 29 June 1906 in Oksanina, Uman, in the Russian Empire (present-day Cherkassy, Ukraine). He was a railway worker until 1924, when he enlisted in the Red Army. In 1928 he left the officer's school at Kiev after graduating, and after the 1937-38 Great Purge in the Soviet Union, he was rapidly promoted to replace the executed experienced generals. In March 1941 he was placed in command of the Soviet 28th Tank Division in the Baltic Military District and in July 1942 was made the commander of the Soviet 18th Tank Corps defending Voronezh during World War II. On 8 February 1943, it was his troops that raised the Soviet flag over the liberate city of Kursk after the defeat of Nazi Germany's forces in the battle of Kursk.

Chernyakhovsky took over the 3rd Belorussian Front in 1944, the youngest front commander of the Red Army. He aided Hovhannes Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front in the Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive during Operation Bagration, and his army moved into Lithuania and the Baltics in July. His army killed 38,000 German troops of Ernst Busch's Army Group Centre, and his army launched the East Prussian Offensive in 1945 to finish off the German forces. His 1,670,000 Soviet Red Army troops laid siege to the city of Konigsberg in East Prussia (present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia), but he was killed by artillery shell fragments while inspecting his troops. He was only 39 at the time of his death.